Topic: The Dungeon and Dragons Thread

@Darknyht Sounds like a fun session at any rate! Reminds me of a fun weapon (Sword I think; it's been awhile) with random effects a character obtained in a one-shot freeform campaign we did. Wouldn't you know that out of all the possible effects on a D100, they rolled a 1, which causes said weapon to break? XD

@Tyranexx @Darknyht My group was able to get together this past Sunday. It was a shorter session then usual due to my son and I watching the AEW PPV but we still got to play.

So our group decided to tackle the missing ale quest line since the tavern owner offered us free room and meals for solving the problem. Since we are low on funds we figured free room and food was too good of a deal to pass up.

We left Valaki at sunrise and made our way to the vineyard since that would be the best place to start. After an event less trip, all we found on the way there was a corpse that was too ravenged by scavengers to figure out what killed it we arrived at the vineyard. After meeting the the winery owner and his family we learned that a group of Druids has taken over the winery and is the cause of the delay of shipments. We ended the night by planning out a way to attack the winery so that way we can survive the upcoming battle.

One other eventful thing happened, not story related but definitely game related. For some reason I think I was making my character late at night or something but for some reason since I am a Sorcerer level 2/Rogue level 1 I bought some leather armor. But then I took mage armor as a spell. Now with my dex bonus, the armor gives me an AC of 14 where as Mage Armor would give me 16 AC. In order for armor to be better then my Mage Armor it would have to be ÷2 Studded Leather or better. So yeah not quite sure what I was thinking.

@Tasuki Can't say I blame your group for taking the ale quest line first, considering the incentives. Did the owner perhaps have any idea why the group of druids would want to take over the winery? Seems like an odd move from the outside. Unless...they really like their drink?

Whoops was going to give a quick update on my game but looks like I forgot to post what happened last time.

So the last time we played (a few weeks ago) we tried to enter the winery but all hell broke lose. We accidentally alerted most of the druids and needleblights our Rune Knight ended up rolling a 1 on a stealth check. Lucky for us our group held up in some stables so we were able to bottleneck them while our Frontline Fighters held the doorway while me and our rogue attacked from a distance with spells and arrows. It was an intense battle as we had to take on about 30 needleblights and 5 druids. We had to swap between the Rune Knight, Blood Hunter and Paladin to keep them back and heal the Fighters but in the end we prevailed. We did manage to capture one Druid for questioning which we will do next week when we play.

@Tasuki nice. That is one big advantage of the larger party. It’s also nice that you have a flow to battle, and I look forward to hearing more.

I wish things had gone that smoothly for us. The blights were fodder for my fire bolt cantrips, but the druids were played differently. It turned into a running battle through the area as they used hit and run tactics and struck from the shadows.

Our druid fight ended with an adjustment on the fly when our Battle Smith Fighter was killed by a Nat 20’s and terrible roll on the alternate death saving throw table we used. So between sessions we had him re-roll and was reintroduced the next week as a prisoner of the druids.

However none survived the encounter for questioning as the ones we captured poisoned themselves when we tried to question him.

@Darknyht Our Minotaur Rune Knight was able to cast fire shackles on the Druid and during the chaos I was able to teleport behind him and with a sneak attack able to knock him out. The other Druids we quickly took out mainly to bad rolls on the DMs part and us rolling good on saving throws. We suspect that there may be a few more inside the winery but we will see.

Sounds like this was a pretty intense fight, and well won at that! Some great strategy at play, as well as a bit of luck. A good capture on that druid too. It's interesting to read how DMs may play these encounters differently.

I wonder how my group would've handled this encounter, considering many of our current characters are best as ranged attackers (Ranger, Warlock, Bard, Sorceror, and a NPC with some Arcane Trickster capabilities).

@Tasuki Nice play and quick thinking on the Rune Knight's part. I will echo @Tyranexx in that it is interesting to see how a similar encounter can play out so differently based on the people involved and classes chosen.

@Tyranexx @Darknyht So this week we found out that the druids attacked the Winery under order of someone with supposed ties to Strahd himself. This angered our rogue and along with him we decided to clear out the Winery of all the druids. Lucky for us we manged to pull all the druids out of the Winery so exploring it was pretty easy. We did come across a leader but he was stationed on the second floor of the Winery and our Rune Knight Sparta kicked him into a pit used for a crane to hoist up barrels, which caused him to fell to his death by hitting a wagon below and snapping his neck in the fall. The rest of the time we searched the Winery for any answers as to why Strahd would want to attack this place. So far no luck but we still have a few rooms to check out next time we play.

Hopefully you guys will be getting together with your groups soon too.

Hope I don't jinx this, but my group is finally scheduled to meet this weekend! Sunday afternoon/evening; it's been awhile.

@Tasuki I hope your group discovers why Strahd ordered those druids to attack the winery. That seems pretty random. The mental image of the Rune Knight's Sparta kick regarding that leader is pretty humorous. XD Epic play.

After what I believe was 3.5 months, my group FINALLY met for our Tyranny of Dragons campaign. No combat, but another fun RP session. Link to my previous post since it's been awhile.

We explored more of the floating castle after taking a long rest in one of the cloud giant guest rooms on the top floor. During the night, our watchers noticed the vampire we were warned about patrolling outside. Per observation - changing into a bat - she appears to reside in the crumbling central tower. We retrieved our Kobold warlock from the Kobold barracks; he's finally sober now (My character still let him keep the set of Peryton antlers because...ew). We descended to the next floor and found some food in the kitchens. Non combat Kobolds were supervised by a griffon, running to and fro cooking meat, throwing spices and seasonings onto meat, general chaos. We sent in our Kobold Warlock for some reconnaissance since he'd blend in, and it turns out he's not a bad cook either! Both attempts went well, but he didn't think to let his first attempt cool and...dropped our meat on the floor. Didn't go to waste with my drake and our sorceror's croc on hand though! Attempt #2 went better. We investigated another room on that floor, turns out a few cultists were in there - barracks - and left it alone.

Some noises were coming from yet another room; through a crack in one of the two doors, we learned this stable contained the three wyverns we rode in on, plus two more. One successful check later, my ranger realized they were hungry and became determined to feed them. Our whole group grabbed a LOT of meat from the kitchen - nobody cared - and enlisted the help of two patrolling ogres (Bill and Ted; definitely weren't the brightest). The plan was for us to quickly lob the meat in while Bill and Ted secured the doors. This worked on two wyverns, but some failed strength checks meant some of the meat missed, and three wyverns became too excited. One beat against a door that was kept secure, but two others forced their way out. Thankfully more strength and animal handling checks were passed, and the two escapees followed the tossed meat back into the stable area. Narrowly avoided a combat scenario there. All for the monster welfare-obsessed ranger. XD Bill and Ted remarked that feeding them "worked a lot better than usual". Apparently the castle's Kobolds didn't have a lot of luck feeding them....

A bit more investigating before calling it a night. We unfortunately were unable to revisit the giant's quarters but did re-establish communication with the ship/his deceased wife. We learned where Reznir's room is - thankfully she doesn't leave it often - and have a general idea where the dragon under the castle - and some of the treasure - is located. Something about not disturbing the castle's "foremen" either, though I didn't quite catch that bit.

@Tyranexx Sounded like another top notch session, glad you were able to get together finally! I hate when those long hiatus happened but that's mainly due to what happened to my groups in the past.

I am not sure if my group will be getting together this week. One of our players just found out that their father has cancer and started chemo yesterday so naturally they are not in the right mindset. They were also talking about going to see their father which is in another state from them. Not quite sure how advance it is, but still I can understand their state of mind.

Since they do have D&D Beyond on their phone, and discord they said that it's possible for them to play while they are out of town, but as I said it's more their mindset.

@Tasuki Thanks! Schedules wouldn't align, plus the couple that usually hosts us was going through some family/medical issues. There's been a LOT going on for everyone lol. We won't be meeting in the last half of July for sure since I'll be on vacation. I'm going to Europe for a couple weeks, so it would be very hard to coordinate anything remotely.

I hope your group is able to meet, though considering that player's situation it would be perfectly understandable if you guys postpone. Cancer is no joke. I know I wouldn't be able to properly concentrate if I were very concerned about someone I'm close to.

@Tyranexx Glad you got to finally play. I have had a month of no DND due to schedules and life events in the group, but I cannot imagine a quarter of the year of disruption. I would be struggling just to remember important details let alone all the small stuff of a long campaign.

I am looking forward to hearing more of what is hopefully a regular flow of story from your group. Always amazing to me how diverse play can be between different groups.

@Darknyht One of the players is pretty good about taking notes. For me, it's also been helpful writing what happened in this thread. Things tend to stick in my mind better after I've mulled them over a bit. My memory is far from perfect, but these things help lol.

Not sure when we'll be able to play next unfortunately. I'm somewhat open this weekend but haven't heard if we'll meet yet. The last two weekends this month are out since I'll be on vacation (At least concerning our main campaign; I'm fine if they do a one shot while I'm gone). I'm traveling abroad, so it'll be very hard to coordinate remote play.

Played last night and we had quite a few moments of trying to remember as I hadn’t taken good notes last session. We mostly had conversations with NPCs to advance plot but did have a humorous moment with a player that fell down a well. My steel defender was sent down to assist with the monster in it only to roll poorly on athletics and fall 80 ft down onto the creature squishing it.

We have now completed two of the three tarot card quests, but still have two personal quests to finish. I think we could challenge Strahd now, but the party wants to chase down the last card.

@Tyranexx @Darknyht Been awhile since I posted here, but I just an update to my games. Unfortunately due to circumstances beyond my control, all campaigns that I have been running/playing have had to come to an end. I wish I could say when I will pick them back up again but sadly I don't know when that will be. I am hoping for a few months, but it could be a year. Even if I can continue them again I don't know, if my players will still have the schedule or even if we will remember what we were doing lol. But rest a sure at some point I will run something again.

@Tasuki sorry to hear that. I hope you get a game going again quickly.

Finally was able to play a short session Tuesday. Our party is turning the corner on the final stretch and currently find ourselves holed up in an old mansion/castle for the night trying to progress on to our final goal before meeting Strahd. Things being what they are in Barovia, the place is not what it seems and despite our decision not to Scooby-Doo to place we are being sucked into exploration.

The session was basically the travel there and us getting holed up in a well lit room for the night, but it was good to play once again.

Just got back from vacation abroad (Germany) earlier this week. Still re-adjusting to my home time zone and finally have most stuff back in order after being gone for two weeks. We did have a session scheduled for the weekend right before I left (July 16th), but our DM phoned in sick. Three of us still met; one of the other players in our normal campaign also DMs other campaigns and has run our backup Grim Hollow campaign when needed (though it's been awhile). That was a very busy weekend for me - I was barely home - then I left for vacation on Wednesday the 19th and had to pack and set affairs for my absence.

The background: our DM is working on a homebrew world, so we went into a one-shot in a story early in said world's history where we knew we'd most likely die. Both I and the other player chose our classes and quickly worked on some sheets. I played a Paladin, the other a Fighter. We presently learned we were both playing Gem Dragonborn, trying to defend our king Sardior along with some other Gem dragon family allies from an invading army aligned with the Chromatic dragons. To summarize, the Gem dragons were formerly neutral in a war fought between the Chromatic and Metallic dragon races, but joined the Metallic side when they realized they couldn't stand idly by. The tide had turned against the Chromatic dragons, but there was a betrayer from the Gem dragon bunch. We were also allowed to pick a decent legendary weapon each out of two item compendiums.

Basically, it was us and our somewhat squishy NPC allies against an oncoming rush of draconic Chromatic humanoids...plus a dracohydra. All the NPCs eventually fell, but despite that we did pretty well - especially the Fighter since she could hit four times in a turn (duly noted for future prospects). During combat, the betrayer showed up, another Gem Dragonborn. I can't recall his name, but he succeeded in shattering the barrier protecting Sardior. We learned later we were very close to making him fall - somewhere under 10 HP I think - but ultimately that didn't matter. He plunged his weapon into Sardior, eliciting a huge release of energy....The whole underground cavern collapsed, the explosion leaving a massive crater on the world's surface, destroying everything within it. Except...the Betrayer, who rose again as a lich....

@Tasuki Sorry to read that you've had to stop all playing for awhile. Whatever circumstances have come up, I hope they resolve in the best way they can be.

@Darknyht "Decision not to Scooby-Doo" the place". Love the reference; despite being born in the early 90s, I've seen all the classic episodes. Sounds like the DM has other ideas! Sounds like a fun, albeit short, session.